Barney Blake will be joining The Holy Trinity School’s Basketball Academy in January 2019.

Barney originally hails from Stafford, but has been based in Manchester for the past 18 months working for Basketball England – starting out in their Customer Service team, before moving to their Marketing team. Most recently Barney has been heavily involved in the Manchester Magic & Mystics programmes, being named Assistant Coach/Performance Analyst with the NBL Division One team, whilst also being named an Assistant Coach of the U18 and U16 Premier Girls teams. Blake is also the Head Coach of the North West Girls Aspire programme, having recently led the North West U13 Girls to a second-place finish at the 2018 Regional Development Tournament.

In his time in the North West, Blake has also had stints with Myerscough College’s NBL & WEABL squads alongside the Lancashire Spinners WNBL Division One team, having been heavily involved in the Cardiff Met Archers programme whilst at University. In his role as a National Team Performance Analyst, Barney has worked with the England U16 Girls in 2016, GB U18 Women in 2017, England U18 Men in 2018 and with the England Senior Men's squad in the run-up to, and throughout, the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The role will predominantly consist of working with the students at the school in the ever improving programme. In line with this there will be a strong involvement with the club and the recently formed Foundation, working in the community and in the surrounding schools.​

Daniel Hildreth said, “This is a big statement from the school in hiring a 3rd coach. It shows the true dedication and commitment towards improving the programme. Barney was a natural selection, his attention to detail, passion for the game and instant rapport with the students made the decision very easy. We feel we have created very solid foundations within the school and club but understand it is vital that we continue to bring in new blood to help the programme grow.​"

Barney said, "I am honoured to have been offered this new opportunity with The Holy Trinity School and Storm Basketball Club, and cannot wait to get going! This will be a big change for me, but it is one that I am very excited about."

Karl Youngman added "I'm really excited about Barney joining the school/club and bringing a wealth of experience. His passion for growth and an all encompassing programme alines with ours. I think he's going to help push forward basketball as whole, in Crawley & Sussex".